Summer 2022 Chairman’s Report

Greetings from Irving, Texas. I write you shortly after the 2022 Verizon annual shareowners meeting, the first in-person shareowners gathering since 2019, due to the pandemic.

I must say, 2022 has started off strong for our Association.

In early January, we achieved a new win as our proposal for the Verizon Board HR Committee to expand its governance mandate was successfully negotiated and put into practice.

Now moving forward, the HR Committee is empowered to do more than just determine how much compensation should go to the CEO and senior management. They are now compelled to oversee broader workforce equity issues—everything from diversity and inclusion to talent acquisition, pay equity, employee engagement and more. (See pg. 5)

Perhaps they’ll begin investing more in the corporation’s entire workforce and not just those at the very top of the organization, instead evaluating every employee and retiree as an asset and equal Verizon citizen.

As explained in Egregious Executive Pay Levels (pg. 4), there are an awful lot of shareowner dollars being thrown around to only a handful of senior executives in our industry.

Recently, when the preliminary voting result was announced, our Shareholder Ratification of Executive Severance Packages proxy achieved 44%. What a great showing and perhaps a precursor for a 2023 win.

Each year, we travel to the Verizon annual meeting to speak professionally and passionately on behalf of retirees and meet face to face with senior leadership and the Board of Directors in a manner that befits our position as co-owners of our company. In those years, we have collected a dozen wins!

This makes it clear that BellTel is a professional organization, with the capacity and heft to win on issues that matter. There is no other group with such success, and we could never do it without you being there for us.

In the coming weeks, I will also have the honor to speak at a remembrance and dedication of a memorial to those who worked and later became ill or died because of their toxic exposure from the 1975 NY Telephone Company Fire.

After 47 years, the New York City Fire Department is finally doing the right thing by memorializing its 699 members who fought that toxic fire. We will be there to reflect on the 4,000 members from our Telephone family who participated in the cleanup effort or suffered ill health effects as a result.

This effort is not just about memorializing the past; it’s also a chance to help some of our thousands of members (plus their families) who responded to the cleanup and restoration following the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

If you were there and are sick or have a friend or loved one who died, you have a duty to your family to register and qualify with the WTC Health and Compensation Programs.

Don’t delay or make excuses and say it’s only for the police and firefighters. As in 1975 or in 2001-02, our members were there on the front lines too. I implore you to take action to protect yourselves and those you care most about.

Watch Tommy Steed’s Summer 2022 Chairman’s Report on Youtube Below:

This article was first published in the Summer 2022 BellTel Newsletter.